(INDIANAPOLIS) – House Speaker Todd Huston is downplaying his departure this week from his full-time job in the private sector.
Huston resigned Tuesday as a senior vice president at the College Board. His departure came a day after activists mounted a social media campaign focusing attention on his role in advancing a bill limiting how schools teach about racism.
Huston insists the two are unrelated, though he didn’t address whether this year’s education bills came up in what he says were multiple conversations with the College Board. He says his departure from the nearly half-million-dollar-a-year job was his decision, driven by the intense demands of his legislative work, and says the College Board was “extremely supportive.”
Huston has been in the House for 10 years, but says the job has become more tiring and time-consuming since he became speaker at the close of the 2020 session. This year is Huston’s first even-year “short session” as speaker, with 10 weeks to complete the year’s business instead of 16. He says the breakneck pace of the session drove home the difficulty of balancing both possessions.
Huston says his exit from the College Board allows him to focus on the remaining month of the legislative session, and “take a breath” before deciding his next career move.
The bill on the teaching of “divisive concepts” is awaiting a hearing in a Senate committee. The committee heard testimony last month on a Senate version of the bill last month before scrapping the proposal.
